The Park
Located in southeast Utah, Natural Bridges is the state’s First National Monument. Established in 1908, it gets its name from the park’s three extensive naturally occurring bridge-like features. The bridges, Sipapu, Owachomo, and Kachina, are named in honor of the Puebloans, an ancestral people who made the area their home between 7,000 Before Common Era (BCE) and 700 Common Era (CE). Natural Bridges is now maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). (2024)
Despite being one of the lesser-known and visited National Monuments in Utah, Natural Bridges draws in 90,000 visitors annually (2014). While the three bridges are the main attraction, the park offers a diverse range of activities. Visitors can immerse themselves in the park’s natural beauty, explore its historical sites and artifacts, hike its trails, and camp under the starry skies. It is a national treasure that offers something for everyone, making it a must-visit and a cause worth conserving. (2024)
Data
To truly understand a place, you must collect and analyze its data. Fortunately, the United States (U.S.) Geological Survey has collected historical data from the Natural Bridges National Monument since 1980 to 2018 and made it publicly available (2022). The park has 113 data collection sites where they record data from soil composition and temperature to precipitation and evaporation. The complete list of collected and shared data can be found here.
This page only uses historical data collected from 1980 to 2018, while other pages on this site use projected data. # The Land
Natural Bridges National Monument’s data collection sites cover the area from a longitude of -110.0472 to -109.9659 and latitude of 37.57034 to 37.63476. The park’s elevation ranges from 1740.206 meters above sea level to 2004.064 meters above sea level. This section will also look at the ground coverage, soil composition, and slope of each data collection site. (2022)
Ground Coverage
The U.S. Geological Survey collects the percentage of ground around each site that is covered by tree canopy, annual herbaceous plants, plant litter, scrubs, or bare ground. This visual shows the mean of each coverage from all the collection sites.
Soil Composition
The visualization below shows the mean percentage of solid composition at each site. The data collected only includes sand, clay, and rock fragments. Since more than these three categories make up the soil composition, the total does not add up to 100 percent.
Elevation
The total difference in elevation between the lowest and highest points in the park is 263.86 meters. The following graphic looks at the elevation at the different collection sites. The visual shows the elevation of each site on the z-axis, longitude on the x-axis, and latitude on the y-axis. The visual provides a rudimentary look at the geometry of the national monument.
Temperature
The temperature at Natural Bridges can vary greatly, influencing who is willing and able to visit the park on different days of the year. These visualizations show the temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit to make the information accessible to a broader audience. Historically, the Mean annual temperature and summer maximum temperature, in Celsius, have a low variance, 0.5978 and 1.7828, respectively. Meanwhile, the Historical minimum winter temperature, in Celsius, has a higher variance, at 10.97.76. This makes it easier to plan a trip during the summer compared to the winter.
Mean Historical Temperature
This graph shows the annual mean temperature for the historical data. The mean temperature was calculated by finding the average yearly temperature of all the data collection sites.
Minimum Winter Historical Temperature
This visualization shows the minimum temperature from all collection sites’ observations for the given year. It was calculated by finding the coldest collection site on its coldest day.
Maximum Summer Historical Temperature
The plot below shows the maximum temperature from all collection sites’ observations for the given year. That is to say, it shows the data from the hottest observation site on the hottest day for each year.
Precipitation
Rain and snowfall are essential to maintain the life of the local ecology. When looking for life-sustaining planets, scientists look for planets that likely have or have had water. This plot shows the mean precipitation the observation sites recorded each year. There are multiple successive seasons with little rainfall. There is always some rainfall each season and never more than a year of minimal rainfall.
References
Association, National Parks Conservation. 2014. “Plan a Desert Getaway to Natural Bridges.” November 13, 2014. https://www.npca.org/articles/406-plan-a-desert-getaway-to-natural-bridges.
Service, National Park. 2024. “Natural Bridges.” April 25, 2024. https://www.nps.gov/nabr/index.htm.
Survey, U. S. Geological. 2022. “Climate and Drought Adaptation: Historical and Projected Future Exposure Metrics for Southeastern Utah Group National Parks.” March 2, 2022. https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/61a6952fd34eb622f6978d9f.